(Credit: NASA)
A wad of space junk that was supposed to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere instead hit a Florida man’s home, a NASA investigation has found.
NASA examined the recovered debris and confirmed today that it belonged to a batch of expired batteries released by the International Space Station into Earth's orbit in 2021.
Last month, the 5,800 pounds of nickel hydride batteries finally plummeted back to Earth. Although NASA originally expected the space junk to disintegrate in the atmosphere, it turns out the batteries were so big that at least one part survived reentry.
Specifically, NASA said a metal rod that held the batteries failed to burn up. "Based on the examination, the agency determined the debris to be a stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount the batteries on the cargo pallet,” the agency said. “The object is made of the metal alloy Inconel, weighs 1.6 pounds, is 4 inches in height and 1.6 inches in diameter.”
NASA was able to recover the handheld-sized artifact because it crashed through the home of Alejandro Otero in Naples, Florida. “Tore through the roof and went thru 2 floors,” he tweeted, saying the object nearly hit his son.
Otero added an image of the debris fragment, which looked unrecognizable. Hence, Otero spent days trying to contact NASA about the object, to see if it was linked to the space batteries.
Otero's suspicions proved to be correct. Although the stanchion partly melted, enough survived to create a potentially harmful impact. In response, NASA says the ISS will conduct a “detailed investigation” to determine why the debris survived re-entry. This includes potentially updating NASA's engineering models, which "estimate how objects heat up and break apart during atmospheric re-entry."
"NASA remains committed to responsibly operating in low Earth orbit, and mitigating as much risk as possible to protect people on Earth when space hardware must be released,” the agency added. It's unclear whether NASA will compensate Otero for the damage to his home.